Capital Mobility, Agglomeration and Corporate Tax Rates: Is the Race to the Bottom for Real?

Based on a data set for 19 OECD countries for the period 1981–2001,we estimate the impact of FDI on corporate tax rates, wherechanges in FDI are a measure for changes in capital mobility.So far the literature has been concerned with the related butrather different question as to the sensitivity of FDI to taxrates. Our article takes an opposite perspective and asks whatthe impact of capital mobility is on corporate tax rates. Indoing so, we explicitly take the role of agglomeration intoaccount. In theory, core countries can afford a higher tax ratecompared to peripheral countries. In our estimation strategy,we instrument capital mobility to deal with reverse causality.The main conclusion is that increased international capitalmobility, measured by FDI flows, implies a lower corporate taxrate. But we also find that agglomeration matters: core countrieshave a higher corporate tax rate than peripheral countries.If there is a race to the bottom, it seems that it is more realfor some countries than others. (JEL code: H25)     

我国现行环境政策调整与出口产品“环境竞争力”的提升

加入WTO后,我国要在该组织框架下接受贸易自由化与环境保护两股潮流的双重挑战,应对发达国家层出不穷的绿色贸易壁垒。如何合理调整国内现行的一些与WTO规则相矛盾的环境政策,提升出口产品的环境竞争力,促进我国经济与社会的可持续发展,将是我国加入WTO后急需解决的新问题。本文在对环境竞争力概念进行分析的基础上,界定了影响环境竞争力的主要因素。从国际、国内两个方面论述了当前我国环境政策所面临的挑战,及其调整方向。进而,提出今后提高我国出口产品环境竞争力的对策建议。     

Environmental Policy in Open Economies and Monopolistic Competition

This paper analyses the implications of international trade for non-cooperative environmental policy in the case of local production externalities. A particular focus is on the potential effects of regulations on the variety of goods and the resulting international spillover caused by trade. A tougher domestic standard negatively affects the utility of the households abroad, since such a policy reduces their variety of imports (due to fewer domestic product inventions) or their consumption of each imported brand (due to higher import prices). Ignoring the negative spillover, non-cooperative governments implement inefficiently strict standards in equilibrium. In contrast to this clear-cut inefficiency result, the impact of international trade on the state of the environment is ambiguous.     

我国构建绿色税制问题探析

我国环境污染问题日益严重,令人担忧.绿色税制作为政府宏观调控的重要手段,在许多国家的环境保护过程中发挥了重要作用,如法国、美国等均建立了比较完善的绿色税制.目前,我国的税制框架中虽然包含了一些绿色税种,如资源税、消费税等,但在设计、征收与管理过程中仍然存在很多问题,政府和公众还没有充分认识到绿色税制在环境保护中的重要性,因此,树立新的税收观念,建立与完善我国绿色税制势在必行.     

Double Dividend with Involuntary Unemployment: Efficiency and Intergenerational Equity

This paper analyzes the double dividend and distributional issues within an overlapping generations model framework with involuntary unemployment. We characterize the necessary conditions needed to obtain a double dividend, when the revenue of the environmental tax is recycled by a variation of the labor tax rate. We show that an employment dividend may occur without any efficiency dividend and that the young generation is not always harmed by the fiscal reform, even without any intergenerational transfers. Therefore, three dividends (environmental, efficiency and intergenerational equity) can occur simultaneously.     

基于循环经济理念的珠江三角洲环境保护规划战略探讨

环境保护规划的可持续发展需要有先进理念的指导,应用循环经济理论框架来指导环境保护规划对区域可持续发展具有重要意义。本文通过分析循环经济的内涵、原则及其层次性,并结合我国珠江三角洲地区环境保护规划目标和对策进行了深入研究和探讨。分析得出,应用循环经济理念框架来指导环境保护规划是一种适宜的选择,与传统环境保护规划相比,基于循环经济理论框架指导下的区域环境保护规划更强调污染废气物排放减量化、企业生产清洁化、工业生态化以及区域固体废物的循环再利用。     

清洁生产评价在造纸行业环境影响评价中的应用研究

造纸工业是我国的重要产业之一,但同时又是污染较为严重的行业,造纸行业是环境影响评价关注的重要类别。为此,本文从清洁生产的角度,通过对某造纸企业的生产从原材料、产品、资源消耗和污染物排放为指标的清洁生产全过程进行综合评价,定量分析与评定出企业清洁生产的总体水平。以此为例,探讨和研究了造纸企业清洁生产评价方法、一般程序和评价内容。     

An Empirical Investigation of the Resource-based Antecedents of Customer Value in Turbulent Environments in China

With the increasingly turbulent environment and the significant role of customers in business success, creating and delivering superior customer value by deploying unique competences of a firm has been winning more attention. However, studies of customer value seem rather divergent and fragmented, and few studies, if any, have been conducted to identify the distinctive capabilities that determine the effective and efficient creation and delivery of customer value. This paper tries to bridge such gaps and explores the fundamental antecedents of customer value in turbulent environments in perspective of a resource-based theory. Based on the structural equation models developed, we find that technological competences, integrative competence and strategic flexibility are the key resource-based antecedents of customer value while no evidence is found to support the impact of marketing competences on customer value. Furthermore, only the moderating role of marketing turbulence in the relationship between customer value and strategic flexibility is detected and supported.     

Government as a discriminating monopolist in the financial market: the case of China

We show that the many unusual features of China’s financial markets are consistent with a government choosing regulations to maximize a standard type of social welfare function. Under certain conditions, these regulations are equivalent to imposing explicit taxes on business and interest income, yet should be much easier to enforce. The observed implicit tax rates are broadly in line with those observed in other countries. The theory also forecasts, however, that China will face increasing incentives over time to shift to explicit taxes.